Research On The Low Carbonization Of Regional Industrial Structure

The path choice of the industrial restructure is essential to the change of economic growth pattern, which is a widely concerned issue all over the world. In the context of developing low carbon economy, the low carbonization of industrial structure, as the fundamental path and orientation of production mode and industrial structure adjustment, has become an important means for developing regional low carbon economy and achieving the goals of energy conservation and carbon emission reduction. Different industrial structures and their evolution paths have different impacts on the qualities of regional natural resources, eco-environment and economic growth, so the low carbon pathway choice of industrial structure is key to restructuring regional economic growth mode and developing low carbon economy. Thus, research on the theoretical measurement mode, transformation mechanism, strategy and their regional differences for the low carbonization of regional industrial structure constituted the textual original intention and basic contents.The research is based on the literature review and summary about low carbon economy and the relative theories and methods in industrial economic, ecological economic and other related subjects. This dissertation, firstly, defined and elaborated the concept, connotation and influence factors of the low carbonization of regional industrial structure. According to its concept and connotation, regional low carbonization of industrial structure has two fundamental objectives, which interact and influence each other:one is "Quality Transformation", the other is "Quantity Transformation". The result of the interaction of two fundamental objectives is eventually wished to lead to a low carbon, reasonable and upgraded regional industrial structure.Secondly, this paper constructed the basic theory and methods for evaluating the temporal-spatial difference and the evoluting factors and mechanism of regional industrial energy and sector structure low carbon transformation. From the perspective of regional economic geography to discuss this topic, the industrial structure relative theories, industry relevance theories and low carbon theories should be supplied to construct the theoretical framework of the low carbonization of regional industrial structure, while considering the realistic basis of development stage and level of regional economic development. The basic content and logical order for this research are the low carbon transition of regional industrial energy structure, industrial sector structure and their spatial structure, which are the basic premise, the important content and the spatial depiction of regional industrial structure low carbon transformation respectively.Thirdly, this paper analyzed the temporal-spatial evaluation characteristics of the sectoral energy consumption and carbon emissions intensity of Hunan province in the order of the low carbon transformation of regional energy consumption structure, industrial sector structure and their spatial structure, by the means of data envelopment analysis (DEA), input-output method and factor analysis respectively, and then put forward the specific and basic low carbonization strategies of industrial restructure. The empirical results showed that there are larger departmental and spatial diversities in the industrial evolution characteristics of energy efficiency, carbon emissions intensity, the potential of energy saving and emission reduction, and low carbon development level in Hunan province. Generally speaking, the focusing adjustment industries in Hunan province are the energy-intensive industries, such as the coal mining, electric power, iron and steel, non-ferrous metal ores, chemical and other industries, whose level of low carbon development is lower at present phase.Finally, the most important driving forces for the regional low carbonization are the low carbon development factor, scale factor, efficiency factor and technical factors. But their influences to the low carbonization of regional structure of Hunan province are different under the base scenario, carbon scenario and enhanced low carbon scenario designed in this paper. On these grounds, the basic strategies for the low carbonization of industrial structure in Hunan province came from the following3aspects, structural transformation, technology and institutional innovation. However, once we take spatial effects into consideration, the roles of the driving factors showed significant regional differences. So it is necessary for us to put forward more pointed and practical policies of low carbon transition for different regions according to their economic development levels.About the main innovation works of this dissertation are showed as followed: firstly, this paper put forward the concept, theoretical framework and quantitative models for the orientation and strategy choices for the low carbonization of regional industrial structure based on the relationship of regional industrial structure transformation and low carbon economy and the related theories of industry structure, which broadened and enriched contents of the low carbon economy development theories to some extent, and while further elaborated the uses of regional industrial structure evolution theory and other relevant theories. Secondly, some methods and models were innovatively applied in the empirical research. For example, input-output method was used to measure the levels and trends of regional industrial low carbon development, and their driving factors were also discussed under different scenarios by means of factor analysis method. The low carbon transformation strategies put forward by this way are more pointed and operable. Thus, this dissertation deepened the theoretical and empirical studies of the influence factors and mechanism and the implementation strategies of regional industrial structure low carbon transformation.There are also many shortcomings and limitations in this dissertation for the author's limited academic level. Firstly, the theoretical framework of regional industrial structure low carbon transformation is not full-scale and deep enough. For example, without taking the cost factors of low carbon transformation into account. Secondly, this paper didn't manage to forecast the dynamical evolution tendency of low carbon industrial development in Hunan province in a long time series for the limited statistical data. The limitations of this research mentioned above also indicate the trend and direction for the further studies about this topic.In conclusion, from the perspective of economic geography, this paper elaborated the relationship between industrial structure, energy consumption and carbon emissions, and then further discussed regional industrial structure low carbon transformation's concept, spatial-temporal evolution characteristics, driving factors and transition strategies. The results, although with many shortcomings, would be beneficial to provide the theoretical support and practical instruction for regional industrial structure low carbon transformation under the low carbon economy background. In a word, the study on regional low carbonization of industrial structure is significant for realizing the goals of regional economic low carbon development both theoretically and practically.